As the old man walked down a Spanish beach at dawn, he saw ahead of him what he thought to be a dancer. The young man was running across the sand, rhythmically bending down to pick up a stranded starfish and throw it far into the sea.

The old man gazed in wonder as the young soul again and again threw the small starfish from the sand into the water. The old man approached him and asked why he spent so much energy doing what seemed a waste of time. The young man explained that the stranded starfish would die if left until the morning sun.

“But there are thousands of miles of beach, and miles and miles of starfish. How can your effort make any difference?”

The young man looked down at the small starfish in his hand, and as he threw it to safety in the sea, said, “It makes a difference to this one!”

Anonymous

Paul Higginbottom

1 Comment

Paul, I’m glad you are enjoying the book. It is one of my all time favorites. Ben spoke at IBM just after we were acquired by them and a couple of my friends (and yours) got to hear him speak. He left quite an impression with them. The TED video he did is quite cool as well. http://blog.ted.com/2008/06/benjamin_zander.php.